Today is the first anniversary of the Manchester Arena bomb attack. Read the Manchester bombing memorial poem ‘This Is The Place’

Tony Walsh read his memorial poem "This Is The Place" before a crowd of thousands of people. He said is was a way to "give something back" to the city.

"People ask me if I wrote it (the poem) on the day, but I didn't, it was commissioned by Forever Manchester to sum up the passion, the history of Greater Manchester. The version I did in the square has about 12 or 16 lines missing which say 'if you feel like this about our city then we're the charity for you'. But at the end of the poem where I say 'This is the place, we should give something back', this is me trying to do that now with the poem" - said Walsh.

You can read Walsh’s full poem below:

This is the place in the North West of England

It’s ace, it’s the best and the songs that we sing

From the stands, from our bands set the whole planet shaking

Our inventions are legends! There’s nowt we can’t make and

So we make brilliant music. We make brilliant bands

We make goals that make souls leap from seats in the stands

And we make things from steel and we make things from cotton

And we make people laugh, take the mick summat rotten

And we make you at home and we make you feel welcome

And we make summat happen, we can’t seem to help it

And if you’re looking for history then yes, we’ve a wealth

But the Manchester way is to make it yourself

And make us a record, a new number one

And make us a brew while you’re up, love. Go on!

And make us feel proud that you’re winning the league

And make us sing louder and make us believe it

that this is the place that has helped shape the world

And that this the place where a Manchester girl

Name of Emmeline Pankhurst from the streets of Moss Side

Led a Suffragette City with sisterhood pride

And this is the place with appliance of science

We’re on it, atomic, we strut with defiance

In the face of a challenge we always stand tall

Mancunians in union delivered it all

Such as housing and libraries, and health, education

And unions and co-ops, the first railway station

So we’re sorry! Bear with us! We invented commuters!

But we hope you forgive us – we invented computers!

And this is the place Henry Royce strolled with Rolls

And we’ve rocked and we’ve rolled with our own Northern Soul

And so this is the place to do business, then dance

Where go-getters and goal setters know they’ve a chance

And this is the place where we first played as kids

And me Mam lived and died here, she loved it she did

And this is the place where our folks came to work

Where they struggled in puddles, they hurt in the dirt

And they built us a city. They built us these towns

And they coughed on the cobbles to the deafening sound

Of the steaming machines and the screaming of slaves

They were scheming for greatness, they dreamed to their graves

And they left us a spirit, they left us a vibe

The Mancunian Way to survive and to thrive

And to work and to build, to connect and create and

Greater Manchester’s greatness is keeping it great

And so this is the place now we’ve kids of our own

Some are born here, some drawn here but we all call it home

And they’ve covered the cobbles, but they’ll never defeat

All the dreamers and schemers who still teem through these streets

Because this is a place that has been through some hard times

Oppressions, recessions, depressions and dark times

But we keep fighting back with Greater Manchester spirit

Northern grit, northern wit in Greater Manchester’s lyrics

And there’s hard times again in these streets of our city

But we won’t take defeat and we don’t want your pity

Because this a place where we stand strong together

With a smile on our face, Mancunians Forever

And we’ve got this* as the place where a team with a dream (*Forever Manchester)

Podobne artykuły

Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz took part in a 12-hour session of talks with unionists representing striking miners on Monday, but no compromise was reached over the restructuring of state-controlled mines....

Local authorities in close to 1000 destinations across Poland are 'unlawfully' collecting surcharges for healthy air, when in fact pollution exceeds accepted limits, it has been claimed. According to ClientEarth,...

President of Russia Vladimir Putin defended the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that paved the way for the division of Poland during a press conference on Sunday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “When the...

A pregnant Polish woman enslaved by a Romanian father and son has finally found justice. Ioan Berlan, 47, and Reni Parczewski, 25, were taken to jail after they kept her in their house as a domestic slave...

A proposed legislation contains basic regulations for conducting a business in Poland and should strengthen entrepreneurs' rights. The aim is to create a model of cooperation between business and administration...

The Polish agricultural industry is angered following news Monday that the Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority ordered a nation-wide inspection of Polish food products. There have been a number...

A new report released by the CBOS Public Opinion Research Center shows that Poles are becoming more frustrated with parliament, also registering a slight drop in support for President Komorowski. Currently,...

A new survey indicates that over a decade after Poland joined the EU, 41 percent of young Poles still plan to emigrate. The poll by Millward Brown for commercial broadcaster TVN questioned Poles between...